Once the first chill of the year hits the nation, supermarkets, radios and Spotify playlists slowly but surely start to churn out repeated plays of Christmas classics to kick off the festive spirit.
And while new contenders are released each year, there are timeless, legendary tunes that never fail to get everyone in the Yuletide mood.
Wham!’s Last Christmas leaves everyone reaching for a glass of mulled wine, and no office end-of-year party is complete without a tinsel-strewn rendition of All I Want For Christmas Is You. There are several songs by British artists that earn their keep in the month of December, despite not getting much airtime the rest of the year, racking up thousands in annual royalties.
Slade are rumoured to get up to a million each year due to the roaring success of their 1973 classic Merry Xmas Everybody. Elsewhere, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York earns an estimated £400,000.
Here, FEMAIL looks at the other contenders that are sure to be bringing in a hefty paycheck come January…
MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY (1973)
SLADE
UP TO £1 MILLION A YEAR
Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody topped the charts when it was released in 1973 and it continues to be a festive classic. Noddy Holder pictured in 1993
Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Jimmy Lea and Don Powell from Slade, pictured in 1973. Their festive hit has proven itself to be a classic
Holder wasn’t far off when he said that owning the rights to his band’s 1973 hit was ‘like winning the lottery every December 25 for the rest of your life’
Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody topped the charts when it was released in 1973 and it continues to be a festive classic.
The band’s frontman Noddy Holder, 78, wrote the iconic song with bassist Jim Lea, and the money made from this song continues to come in more than half a century later.
The Christmas track amazingly stayed in the charts for nine weeks, meaning it was even played throughout January and February.
Thanks to the introduction of monetised streaming the festive banger has become an annual paycheck for the band.
Research carried out by Channel 5 in 2016 estimated Holder and Lea take home £1 million, or £500,000 each, from the song that was number one in the UK charts in both 1973 and 1989.
In 2013 analysts from the Performing Right Society, which collects fees when music is played everywhere from Radio 1 to jukeboxes and deneme bonusu veren siteler shops, estimated the track raked in £512,000.
The band’s frontman Noddy Holder, 78, wrote the iconic song with bassist Jim Lea, and the money made from this song continues to come in more than half a century later (Holder in 1972)
The band was formed in Wolverhampton in 1966 with drummer Don Powell and violinist/bassist Jim Lea alongside Holder and Dave Hill
Holder wasn’t far off when he said that owning the rights to his band’s 1973 hit was ‘like winning the lottery every December 25 for the rest of your life’.
It comes after Holder told how the song was originally written years before its release and was then later rewrote into a Christmas track.
Speaking to PRS For Music, he said: ‘The song that became Merry Xmas Everybody was written in 1967. It was a hippy-trippy thing and the chorus went: ‘So won’t you buy me a rocking chair to watch the world go by / Buy me a looking glass to look me in the eye-eye-eye.’
‘One night in 1973, I was staying at my parents’ in the Midlands after a few drinks down the local pub.
‘The whiskey bottle came out when I got in and I rewrote that earlier song in two hours, using the same music for the chorus but changing the words and adding verses.’
Although the lyrics conjure an image of the typical British Christmas, the song was actually recorded in a studio in New York in the middle of summer.
Holder said he wanted to paint a picture of a ‘working class Christmas’, with the idea of writing a festive track given to the group by bassist Jim Lea’s aunt.
The song was an instant hit upon its release with record company Polydor having to use its French pressing plant to keep up with the demand for the single.
Holder was first diagnosed with throat cancer five years ago, announcing the news in October last year after keeping it a secret (pictured in 2014)
It debuted at number one on December 15 and stayed at the top spot for the next five weeks. Thanks to streaming, Merry Xmas Everybody has entered the top 100 every year since 2006.
The song has such widespread popularity that royalties body PRS estimated in 2009 that 42 percent of the world’s population had heard it.
The band was formed in Wolverhampton in 1966 with drummer Don Powell and violinist/bassist Jim Lea alongside Holder and Dave Hill.
They became one of the biggest British rock bands of the 1970s, enjoying huge success with six number one singles.
Holder and Lea left the band in 1992, with Hill and Powell continuing to perform as Slade with a variety of other singers and musicians.
But in 2020 Powell said he had been sacked from the band. He claimed Hill fired him by email without warning, something which Hill denies.
And in 2015 Holder said: ‘It saddens me that the four guys who were in Slade can’t get together and sit round the dinner table.
‘Five years ago I got the four of us together to air our grievances, but it was too painful.’
Holder and Hill sparked speculation the band was reforming when they posted a snap together in February last year.
The singer and the guitarist posed for a picture taken by Holder’s author wife Suzan which she uploaded to Instagram.
She captioned the image: ‘Lunch today. I will not be taking any further questions.’
Holder and Hill have not performed together since Holder quit the band in 1992. He has since said it would take a ‘miracle’ to get all four original members back together.
Holder was seen leaving the BBC Breakfast studios after being given six months to live five years ago amid his throat cancer battle.
He was first diagnosed with the disease five years ago, announcing the news in October last year after keeping it a secret.
He underwent a groundbreaking new form of chemotherapy at a hospital in Manchester which has helped keep him alive.
Earlier this week he gave a fresh health update as he told how doctors are still ‘keeping a check on me’ five years after the diagnosis.
He told Sky News: ‘I did have oesophageal cancer and that was five years ago and, at the moment, they’re still keeping a check on me.
‘I’m on a level playing field at the moment after at the time being diagnosed with six months to live.
‘So I’ve lasted the course, as it were.’
FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK (1988)
THE POGUES AND KIRSTY MACCOLL
£400,000
While the the Performing Right Society (PRS) has not revealed how much The Pogues’ 1987 Christmas melody Fairytale of New York struck makes from this festive tune to protect members’ privacy – the Mail has in past estimated an annual £400,000
The irreverent song, a folkesy homage to old New York, plays out a slanging match between an old couple – parts memorably sung by Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl – as Christmas Day approaches
It’s the nation’s favourite festive anthem – beating its rivals in Christmas polls every year as it’s belted out in pubs and homes.
While the the Performing Right Society (PRS) has not revealed how much The Pogues’ 1987 Christmas melody Fairytale of New York struck makes from this festive tune to protect members’ privacy – the Mail has in past estimated an annual £400,000.
Among a catalogue of raucous hits, the band’s song struck a chord with the public and cemented the group’s place in rock and roll history.
The irreverent song, a folkesy homage to old New York, plays out a slanging match between an old couple – parts memorably sung by Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl – as Christmas Day approaches.
As MacGowan’s death at 65 was announced last year in November, it spelt heartbreak for millions of fans around the world who’ve serenaded to the tune each Christmas.
But Fairytale of New York, crafted determinedly over two years through a haze of drink, gambling, excess and abuse, is itself a tale of unlikely success.
Recollections differ over how the idea for recording the Christmas song came about.
MacGowan himself, when asked by The Guardian’s Dorian Lynskey, described a challenge set by Elvis Costello – who wagered he couldn’t write a Christmas duet to sing alongside The Pogues’ female bass player Cait O’Riordan.
Since Kirsty MacColl’s tragic death in a boating accident in 2000, the part has been sung by many others – Sinead O’Connor, Katie Melua and Cerys Matthews to name a few, although MacColl’s recording remains definitive for many
But in his memoir, accordion player James Fearnley recalled that in the mid 1980s, the band’s manager Frank Murray had suggested The Pogues cover the Band’s 1977 song Christmas Must be Tonight.
‘It was an awful song,’ Fearnley wrote. ‘We probably said, f*** that, we can do our own.’
Whichever story is true, by 1985, the band had committed to creating their own Christmas tune.
Banjo-player and co-writer Jem Finer described it as a ‘no brainer’ as The Pogues were ‘rooted in all kinds of traditions’.
But the band struggled to settle on a concept. Finer’s first thought – of a sailor missing his wife on Christmas Day – was dismissed as ‘corny’ by his own wife, Marcia Farquhar.
He recounted: ‘I said OK, you suggest a storyline and I’ll write another one. The basic plotline came from her: this idea of a couple falling on hard times and coming eventually to some redemption.’
Although the band was rumoured to have based the dialogue on a real-life married pair, MacGowan said: ‘Really, the story could apply to any couple who went anywhere and found themselves down on their luck.’
For two years, MacGowan poured himself into composing the chorus and undulating verses of Fairytale of New York. Although he’d never visited New York by that point, he had a strong sense of what it meant to the Irish diaspora around the world.
Another inspiration came from Ennio Morricone’s score for 1984 movie Once Upon A Time In America, which follows 1940s mobsters in the Big Apple.
The first demo of the song was recorded in 1986, featuring bass player Cait O’Riordan singing the wife’s role, although the lyrics – ‘It was a wild Christmas Eve on the West coast of Clare,’ sings O’Riordan – were still being worked upon.
MacGowan recalled: ‘Every night I used to have another bash at nailing the lyrics, but I knew they weren’t right.’
At the time, the band hadn’t even decided on a title for the tune, with Costello suggesting Christmas Day in the Drunk Tank. Eventually, they settled on Fairytale of New York, the title of Irish author JP Donleavy’s 1973 novel, who happily gave his permission for it to be used.
The band’s first visit to New York in 1986 exceeded MacGowan’s expectations, he recalled it was ‘a hundred times more exciting than we ever dreamed it could be’.
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U2 producer Steve Lillywhite came on board to oversee the Pogues’ next album. Sessions at the RAK studio in London in 1987 went well and the band decided to finally pin down Fairytale. Finer set about finessing the strings and the piano intro for the song.
But the band faced another problem – O’Riordan had left The Pogues the previous year to marry Costello and there was no woman left to sing the female part.
Several candidates’ names were thrown into the ring, including Chrissie Hynde and even Suzi Quatro, before Lillywhite’s own wife Kirsty MacColl stepped forward.
MacColl, whose father was legendary Scottish folk singer Ewan MacColl, had enjoyed chart success in the early 1980s with the Billy Bragg-penned hit New England, but stage fright had seen her retreat from performing.
The band also needed to be convinced. Lillywhite let his wife record her part at their home studio, ‘making sure every word had the right nuance’, before playing the tape to MacGowan and Finer.
MacGowan was so impressed, he decided to re-record his own vocals.
He later recalled: ‘Kirsty knew exactly the right measure of viciousness and femininity and romance. In operas, if you have a double aria, it’s what the woman does that really matters. The man lies, the woman tells the truth.’
Since Kirsty MacColl’s tragic death in a boating accident in 2000, the part has been sung by many others – Sinead O’Connor, Katie Melua and Cerys Matthews to name a few, although MacColl’s recording remains definitive for many.
The song’s lyrics – as the couple reminisce over their meeting and ponder how life has turned out – spell out a quarrel that’s every bit as poignant as it is amusing.
‘I could have been someone,’ enthuses the husband, sung by MacGowan. ‘Well, so could anyone,’ his wife brutally points out.
LAST CHRISTMAS (1984)
WHAM!
£300,000
It told a bittersweet tale of lost love amid the joy of the festive season, so perhaps it’s only fitting that the legacy left by Wham ‘s much-loved hit Last Christmas is one complicated by sadness
Andrew Ridgeley – one half of the duet, alongside his dear late friend George Michael – however never makes any money from it, as the pair decided to donate all the money to Ethiopian famine relief
It told a bittersweet tale of lost love amid the joy of the festive season, so perhaps it’s only fitting that the legacy left by Wham’s much-loved hit Last Christmas is one complicated by sadness.
Andrew Ridgeley – one half of the duet, alongside his dear late friend George Michael – however never makes any money from it, as the pair decided to donate all the money to Ethiopian famine relief.
But according to National World, the song earns £300,000 a year in royalties.
It told a bittersweet tale of lost love amid the joy of the festive season, so perhaps it’s only fitting that the legacy left by Wham’s much-loved hit Last Christmas is one complicated by sadness.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s ballad hitting the airwaves, cementing its position as one of the greatest festive hits of all time and with a video documenting a trip to a ski chalet that’s just as loved as the song.
To mark the occasion, Andrew has returned to the same Swiss Alpine village where the video was filmed, joined by Wham! backing singers Shirlie Kemp and Helen ‘Pepsi’ DeMacque was well as Jon Fowler, Cheryl Harrison, Pat Fernandes and David Ridler, who also appeared in the video.
The trip was also designed as a tribute to George, following his death in 2016 at the age of 53, with Andrew telling BBC Two’s documentary Wham! Last Christmas Unwrapped: ‘There is an incompleteness being here without George. When he left us, he died at Christmas.
‘To lose such a dear friend, when you have a particular bond, it was a truly desperate moment. He was my other half, I’d never conceived of a future without him.’
This year marks the 40th anniversary of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s ballad hitting the airwaves. The duo in 1983
While Last Christmas’ video was considered groundbreaking at the time, with a focus on its narrative over performance, many of its stars have experienced varying fortunes since its release
Pictured last year: Pictured last year: Andrew Ridgeley of Wham! who have secured the UK’s official Christmas number one with Last Christmas, 39 years after the track was released
The group last performed together at WHAM! The Final concert at Wembley in June 1986 and despite multiple rumours of a reunion, they never performed again together.
Their first public reunion came 31 years later when Andrew, Pepsi and Shirley appeared on stage at the BRIT Awards in 2017 to pay tribute to George.
While Last Christmas’ video was considered groundbreaking at the time, with a focus on its narrative over performance, many of its stars have experienced varying fortunes since its release.
Wham remained one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but other names that famously featured in the video have battled struggles including alcoholism, backstage feuds and brushes with the law.
Last Christmas finally reached number one in the UK charts in January 2021 following a huge campaign by fans. It was also finally the Christmas Number One last year.
WONDERFUL CHRISTMASTIME (1979)
PAUL MCCARTNEY
£260,000
The ex-Beatle’s jaunty Christmas tune is sure to get everyone on the dancefloor as ‘the choir of children sing their song’
It’s no wonder that, as reported by the Sunday Post , the song earns an estimated £260,000 a year. Pictured in 2005
The ex-Beatle’s jaunty Christmas tune is sure to get everyone on the dancefloor as ‘the choir of children sing their song’.
So it’s no wonder that, as reported by the Sunday Post, the song earns an estimated £260,000 a year.
According to the outlet, Paul spent just ten minutes writing the tune and it peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. The song has attracted mixed opinions – some love it while others hate it compared to the legendary musician’s repertoire.
But this hasn’t stopped Paul from earlier this month playing the festive hit as he kicked off his UK tour in Manchester last week.
It was the first time he’d played the song in six years, NME says, with the Beatle telling the audience: ‘All right, seeing as the season’s coming around, we’ve got a little surprise for you. Are we ready?’
I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY (1973)
WIZZARD
£200,000
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday has proven itself to be a festive hit after releasing in 1973. Pictured, Roy Wood in 2005
And according to the Standard , its popularity can be proven by the fact that it earns an estimated £200,000 a year
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday has proven itself to be a festive hit after releasing in 1973.
And according to the Standard, its popularity can be proven by the fact that it earns an estimated £200,000 a year.
This year, the rock legend behind the classic has given fans an early gift by revealing he’s working on his first new album in 14 years.
Former Wizzard frontman Roy Wood, 78, has delved into his archives and discovered unreleased material he deems worthy of a new LP.
He admitted he became ‘lazy’ and started to ‘neglect’ his music career, but that is about to change.
In an interview with The Sun, Roy said: ‘I was going through some tracks and I managed to find at least eight tracks that are all unfinished and never been heard.
‘And I’m going to get down and get them finished and get a new album. You know, I think it’s probably about time.
‘It’s about time I wasn’t quite so lazy and did it.
‘I’ve sort of neglected the music a bit.’
Wood rose to fame in the 1970s and 80s, when he performed with the Electric Light Orchestra and The Move.
Wood formed the Move in 1965, and had hits including Flowers in the Rain, while the Move were still together, Roy, along with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, founded Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success.
In August 1973, Roy donned a bobble hat and gloves ready to get into the mood to sing I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day.
Wood’s Xmas song from 1973 has charted in the UK top 50 every year since 2007.
DRIVING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
CHRIS REA
£200,000
Speaking to The Guardian , British singer Chris Rea revealed that it was – perhaps unsurprisingly – being stuck in traffic that inspired the tune
He recounted how his wife got in their Austin Mini and ‘drove all the way down from Middlesbrough to Abbey Road studios to pick him up’
Driving Home For Christmas was released in 1986 as a B-side to song Hello Friend. It was then re-released in 1988 as an attempt at the Christmas charts but only reached number 53. However, it has slowly grown in popularity – in 2021 it reached number ten in the UK Singles Chart.
And according to the Financial Times, it brings in an estimated £200,000 each year, likely during Britons’ commutes back home to visit their family.
Speaking to The Guardian, British singer Chris Rea revealed that it was – perhaps unsurprisingly – being stuck in traffic that inspired the tune. ‘It was 1978, coming up to Christmas. It was all over for me: I was just about out of my record contract, and my manager had just told me he was leaving me. I just needed to get home to Middlesbrough from London, but the record company wouldn’t pay for a rail ticket, and I was banned from driving.’
He recounted how his wife got in their Austin Mini and ‘drove all the way down from Middlesbrough to Abbey Road studios to pick him up’. They were back on the road straight away.
‘Then it started snowing,’ he continued. ‘We had £220 and I was fiddling with it all the way home. We kept getting stuck in traffic and I’d look across at the other drivers, who all looked so miserable. Jokingly, I started singing: “We’re driving home for Christmas …” Then, whenever the street lights shone inside the car, I started writing down lyrics.’
But the full song wouldn’t make a debut until quite some time later.
When Chris and his wife got home for 3am, they blissfully greeted by a £15,000 cheque from PRS America as his song Fool (If You Think It’s Over) had been a hit in the US.
‘We went from being down to our last £220 to being able to buy a house. The song went in my old tin full of unfinished stuff,’ he said.
Years went by before he was compelled to take the lyrics out the tin as he and keyboard player Max Middleton and I were testing two new piano, and Chris played a melody that he felt ‘fitted perfectly’ with the words he’d written down.
‘I’d never intended to write a Christmas hit – I was a serious musician! So initially, the song came out on a B-side. Then a DJ flipped it over and started playing it, so Max suggested we re-record it and add some strings,’ he concluded.
Before long, a festive classic was born.
STOP THE CAVALRY (1993)
JONA LEWIE
£120,000
Jona Lewie can expect to pull in hundreds of thousands of pounds each year through his festive tune.
Royalties from his classic Christmas tune Stop The Cavalry have meant the star has ‘never had to get a proper job’ following its success in 1980.
In 2015 he was estimated to have raked in as much as £120,000 from the song.
His other big hit, also released in 1980, was You’ll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties which is often played at New Year.
Stop The Cavalry was never intended to be a Christmas hit and started out as an anti-war song, which just happened to include the line ‘Wish I was at home this Christmas’.
The track was initially dismissed by record bosses but they changed their minds when Lewie returned with a beefed up arrangement, in which he played the famous melody on a kazoo.
Speaking about the hit, he has previously said: ‘I spent the 1980s and 1990s trying to get over my success with that song.
‘It sold about three or four million copies, so I never had to get a proper job! I’ve kept busy, though.’
He added: ‘Stop The Cavalry constitutes 50 per cent of my real income. The thing is, I do everything on the track. I write the lyrics and the melody, so that’s all of the publishing. And because I’m a musician I can do all the backing track, so that’s all the recording royalty. I was a one-man show. And if you can get a track associated with Christmas, you get annual regurgitation, and potential for earning every year.’
Despite its recognition, Stop The Cavalry never made it to number one. John Lennon was murdered the day it was released and the top tunes in the charts that Christmas were by the ex-Beatle.
Jona, born John Lewis, joined his first band aged 14 while still at school. He went on to study for A Levels and later a degree in sociology at Kingston Polytechnic.
He supported Eric Clapton on tour while a member of a group called Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts. In 1971 he wrote the song Sea Side Shuffle – which got to number two in the charts – and the band changed their name to Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs.
MISTLETOE AND WINE (1988)
CLIFF RICHARD
£100,000
Mistletoe & Wine by Cliff Richard (pictured in 2022) is among the top most popular Christmas songs in the UK – and it earns about £100,000 a year in royalties
Sir Cliff (pictured in 1971) came across the track and adapted it to his own style and added a few more religious lines to it
Mistletoe & Wine is among the top most popular Christmas songs in the UK – and it earns about £100,000 a year in royalties.
While it came out in 1988, it was first written by Leslie Stewart, Keith Strachan and Jeremy Paul in 1976, 12 years before it was released by Sir Cliff.
It was written for a musical, The Little Match Girl. The producers wanted them to create a satirical Christmas carol type song for the show.
Leslie came up with the lyric ‘It’s a time for giving, A time for getting, A time for forgiving and for forgetting’ while he was out walking his dog and raced home to start working on the song.
The original song won an Ivor Novello Award and the musical was turned into a film in 1986, which starred Roger Daltrey.
Sir Cliff came across the track and adapted it to his own style and added a few more religious lines to it.
The song was released in November 1988, it sold 750,000 copies and was number one for four weeks.
Leslie said in 2018: ‘The song is a bit different from the original, it was never written as a one-off but as part of a musical.
‘Cliff wanted to make it more Godly, I resisted, but in the end we said okay.
‘And I find it very hard to be critical of his version because it was very successful.
‘I’m quite grateful it did well, it was the third best-selling single of the 1980s so it was incredible to be involved with and I still get royalties from it.
‘It’s a part of my income, I’m still writing so I make money from that and then things that I wrote 20 years ago still pays out from television reruns and things.
‘We play it every Christmas, we start our Christmas morning with it. But a lot of the time it just passes me by, I think I tune it out, like muzak.’
STAY ANOTHER DAY (1994)
EAST 17
£97,000
In 1994, Walthamstow band East 17 put out a pop ballad that resonated itself as a festive hit in the UK
East 17 star Tony Mortimer has re-released their iconic festive classic Stay Another Day to celebrate its 30th anniversary
In 1994, Walthamstow band East 17 put out a pop ballad that resonated itself as a festive hit in the UK.
And according to 2016 Channel 5 data reported by the Independent, Stay Another Day brings in an annual £97,000.
In November, one of the members Tony Mortimer re-released their iconic festive classic to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
The singer-songwriter, 54, put back on the iconic white padded jacket as he teamed up with charity Nordoff and Robbins for the re-release.
But Tony is no longer in touch with his bandmates Brian Harvey, Terry Coldwell, and John Hendy, so is releasing the track on his own.
Tony hopes the song can again challenge for the Christmas number one spot, and admitted his label had been keen to celebrate 30 years since its release in 1994.
‘The record company said they wanted to do something for the 30th anniversary, I said I couldn’t just stand there; people would pelt me,’ he said.
‘They suggested getting Nordoff and Robbins involved. Seeing how much good they do, I wanted to do it for them.’
Tony will perform Stay Another Day alongside bassist Ruby on December 10 at Nordoff and Robbins’ Carol concert.
Of drifting apart from his bandmates, Tony said: ‘We were very young, and people forget how young we were. It was a great time, but it’s a huge change.’
MailOnline contacted Tony’s representatives for comment at the time.
Last Christmas, Tony’s former bandmate Terry released another track as East 17 with two new bandmates, Joe Livermore and Robbie Craig.
They replaced the originals Brian Harvey, who dipped out of the band permanently in 2010, Tony, who left in 2013 and John Hendy, who said his goodbyes to East 17 in 2018.
Brian was soon replaced by Blair Dreelan in 2011 – he left the same year – and John’s place was quickly filled by Terry John in 2018, but he then left the following year.
When shooting the music video, the group agreed to give Santa cancer this year in the hope of raising awareness about the dangers of smoking.
But Tony is no longer in touch with his bandmates Brian Harvey, Terry Coldwell, and John Hendy, so is releasing the track on his own (Pictured singing with Blue)
Tony hopes the song can again challenge for the Christmas number one spot, and admitted his label had been keen to celebrate 30 years since its release in 1994
Tony will perform Stay Another Day alongside bassist Ruby on December 10 at Nordoff and Robbins’ Carol concert
When asked if he thought their new Christmas hit will do as well in the charts as Stay Another Day, Terry replied, ‘Yeah, but obviously they are two totally different tracks’.
‘Two different tracks, but hopefully, with LadBaby being out of the way this year, yeah, we’ve got a good shot,’ he added.
The trio have been as thick as thieves for more than a decade now and are still dominating charts across the globe.
Their recent album 24/7 made it to seventh place in Turkey, fourth place in Norway and number sixty two in Japan on the iTunes Chart this year.
In an interview with MailOnline, he said: ‘It’s a Christmas cracker to encourage people to quit smoking.
‘We’ve got Ed Sheeran, Elton John, George Michael, Noddy as well as Slade. It’s not usually an East 17 cut type song, but it was a good laugh.’
Stay Another Day entered the UK charts at number seven, and for the last three weeks of 1994, the track solidified its place at No.1 for at least three weeks running.
It outsold Mariah Carey’s hit single for the weeks commencing 11, 18 and 25 December, selling roughly 130,000, 120,000 and 160,000 copies.
The sales took the lead over Mariah in the week before Christmas was around 60,000, and thus securing 1994’s Christmas number one to East 17.
